75
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police investigated a homicide at Casper College this morning in Casper, Wyo. At least one person was killed and another was wounded in an attack at Casper College, a community college in central Wyoming. It happened around 9 a.m., said school spokesman Rich Fujita.
CASPER, Wyo. » A man killed one person in a Casper neighborhood before going to a nearby community college campus this morning and killing a faculty member and then himself, police said.
Police found the suspect and one of the victims at a science building on the Casper College campus, which was locked down as authorities assessed the situation, Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said. The other victim was found about 2 miles away.
Authorities say the suspect used a sharp-edged weapon in at least one of the deaths.
The suspect wasn’t believed to be a Casper College student, but it did appear there was a relationship between him and the victims, Walsh said. The police chief didn’t identify the suspect or victims but said the victims were a male and a female.
"We’re locating next of kin and working on notification absolutely as fast as we can," Walsh said.
He added authorities don’t believe there is any further threat to the community.
"I want to emphasize that this is a horrible tragedy," Walsh said. "And I want the city to … just feel safe right now. There is no one at large."
The attack at the two-year community college in Casper, about 250 miles northwest of Denver, occurred just before 9 a.m. while class was in session.
The campus was locked down and the science building was evacuated, but the lockdown had ended by early afternoon.
Political science instructor Chris Henrichsen said he was showing the film "Frost/Nixon" to his Wyoming and U.S. government class when he stepped into the hall to get something for a student and was told a homicide had occurred on campus.
He went back to his classroom, where students were getting messages about the campus lockdown on their phones.
"We locked the door and waited for further instruction," Henrichsen said.
The class finished watching the remaining 10 minutes of the movie and remained locked down 20 minutes after that, he said.
The students then were sent home, but some who parked near a different campus building where the attack occurred had to leave their cars there, Henrichsen said.
Henrichsen said he saw nothing unusual or suspicious on campus before the attack.
Police provided some details in a news conference streamed live by the Casper Star-Tribune.
Walsh said 33 law enforcement officers from different agencies responded to the college after receiving reports of the attack. He said authorities first thought it might have been an "active-shooter-type situation."
"We quickly contained the building and started a sweep through the building," he said.
Walsh said within minutes of the initial call, there was another report of a traumatic injury about 2 miles southwest of campus. That victim was found in the street, the Star-Tribune reported.
Casper is Wyoming’s second-largest city with a population of about 56,000. Wyoming residents refer to it as the "Oil City" because it’s a hub for the state’s small oil industry.
Casper is flanked to the south by Casper Mountain, scene of a massive wildfire in September that burned more than 24 square miles of forest and meadows and destroyed 37 homes and cabins.
Associated Press writer Ben Neary contributed to this report.
